Bartolo Colon's second start of his MLB career was his worst (Indians notes)

By JIM INGRAHAM

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

CLEVELAND -- Thursday at noon when Oakland's Bartolo Colon takes the mound against the Indians, he will be making the 382nd start of his major league career.

His most memorable start, however, might have been the second start of his major league career, which he made for the Indians, in Seattle, on April 9, 1997.

It was the quintessential rookie "I have no idea what I'm doing out here" start.

What made the game so memorable is that Colon threw 61 pitches in one inning -- the first. . . and only got two outs.

That's right, 61 pitches, two outs. Adios.

Colon, who was 24 years old at the time and about 60 pounds lighter than he is now, faced all nine batters in the Mariners lineup, only retired two of them, threw 61 pitches, then was excused for the day by Tribe manager Mike Hargrove.

Colon's problem that day was that the only pitch he could throw for a strike was a fastball. So that's all he threw -- literally. And the Seattle hitters knew it. Fastball after fastball after fastball.

Mariners hitters kept fouling off fastballs until Colon either walked them or they got a hit.

After a while it just got monotonous. Colon wasn't fooling anyone. Fastball, fastball, fastball. He threw 61 pitches in the inning and Mariners hitters swung and missed on just two of them. The first batter Colon faced, Cora, had an 11-pitch at bat and the last batter Colon faced, Marzano, had a 15-pitch at bat.

Of the 61 pitches Colon threw, 36 of them were strikes, and 24 of those 36 strikes were foul balls.

Colon left a bases loaded, two outs situation for reliever Steve Kline, who gave up a two-run single to Cora before getting Rodriguez on an inning-ending groundout.

Colon's pitching line that day looked like this: 2/3 of an inning pitched, 6 earned runs on 3 hits, 4 walks, no strikeouts. His earned run average for the game was 80.60.

The Indians lost the game 11-1, but went on to win the American League pennant that year. Colon was 4-7 with a 5.65 ERA. Colon also spent part of that season at Class AAA Buffalo, where he was 7-1 with a 2.22 ERA.

Colon's career took off after that. He went 14-9 in 1998 and then 18-5 in 1999 when he finished fourth in the Cy Young voting. In the middle of the 2002 season he was traded by the Indians to Montreal and went 10-4 for both teams, and in 2005 he was 21-8 for the Angels and won the Cy Young Award.

Bourn update

Michael Bourn was scheduled to play nine innings in centerfield Wednesday night at Class AAA Columbus on a rehab assignment, after which Indians officials will decide if he will be activated off the disabled list.

"Chris (Antonetti, Tribe general manager) is down there," Tribe manager Terry Francona said. "After the game we'll re-evaluate everything, see how Michael feels and make a decision. We'll do whatever is in Michael's best interest."

Bourn has been on the disabled list since April 15 with a lacerated right index finger.

Entering Wednesday's game the Indians' record was 11-8 since Bourn went on the DL.

Notes

o Francona said he saw the replay of Toronto pitcher A.J. Happ getting hit in the head by a line drive Tuesday night. "That scares everybody when it happens. It takes your breath away," he said.

o Tribe pitcher Zach McAllister, who did not throw a split-finger fastball when the season began, does now. "He learns things so fast it's unbelievable," Francona said.

o Entering Wednesday's game the Indians had made just one error in their last 10 games, and they won eight of those games.

o The combined earned run average of all Indians pitchers in the 84 innings they've pitched with Yan Gomes as catcher is 2.89. That's the fourth lowest in the majors among catchers with at least 80 innings behind the plate.